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Former Nickelodeon producer/writer Dan Schneider fired back at the team behind the bombshell series Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV on Wednesday (May 1) in a lawsuit in which he alleged that the documentary series wrongly implied that he sexually abused the child actors he worked with.
According to the Associated Press, Schneider filed the defamation suit against Warner Bros. Discovery and other companies behind the investigative series in Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming in the suit that the show’s trailer and episodes deliberately mixed and juxtaposed images and mentions of him with the criminal sexual abusers spotlighted in the show with the implication he was involved.
Former teenage actor Schneider (Head of the Class) split with Nickelodeon in 2018 after more than a decade at the center of some of the network’s most successful, star-making shows, including All That, The Amanda Show, Kenan & Kel and as executive producer of Zoey 101, iCarly and Victorious, with the latter three, respectively, launching the careers of Jamie Lynn Spears, Miranda Cosgrove and Jenette McCurdy and Victoria Justice and Ariana Grande.
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Schneider took center stage during many storylines in Quiet, which interviewed the casts and crews of several of Schneider’s most successful shows to describe how the sets he was responsible for often sexualized their young teen stars in a sometimes tense, toxic work environment some described as abusive. The series originally ran on the ID channel in March and is now available to stream on Max.
Among the bombshell revelations in the series that spotlighted descriptions of sexual abuse of child actors was the emotional commentary from Drake & Josh star Drake Bell, who described his grooming and sexual abuse by former childhood dialogue coach Brian Peck; Peck was convicted of sexually assaulting a Nickelodeon child actor (Bell) in 2004. In the third episode, Bell graphically recounts the abuse he suffered at Peck’s hands when he was 14- and 15-years-old.
Other former actors on Nickelodeon shows from the Schneider era also allege that they were rife with sexism, racism and inappropriate behavior involving underage stars and crew and alleged predatory behavior. The show suggests that Schneider’s shows tended to put young women in comedic situations with overt sexual implications, while depicting him as an angry and emotionally abusive boss, including specific allegations of sexual harassment and gender discrimination form women who worked as writers under him on All That.
Among the allegations are that he displayed pornography on his computer in their presence in the writers’ room and often asked for massages from female staffers with the implication that they could help get the women’s sketches on the shows, which he has denied.
According to the AP, the suit claims “Quiet on Set’s portrayal of Schneider is a hit job. While it is indisputable that two bona fide child sexual abusers worked on Nickelodeon shows, it is likewise indisputable that Schneider had no knowledge of their abuse, was not complicit in the abuse, condemned the abuse once it was discovered and, critically, was not a child sexual abuser himself.” In addition to Discovery — parent company of ID and Max — the suit names the show’s producers as well, Sony Pictures Television and Maxine Productions. The suit claims that the series and its trailer unjustly implicated Schneider in child sex abuse by showing pictures of him, some with his arm around young actresses, amid discussions of what they said were unsafe environments on his sets.
The series claims that kid actors were made to wear suggestive costumes and act in inappropriate sketches with clearly pornographic undertones. All That actor Leon Frierson talks about his superhero character, Captain Big Nose, who wore tights and underwear and a prosthetic nose with matching noses on his shoulders.
“You can’t help but notice that it looks like penises and testicles on my shoulders,” he says in the series, adding that one sketch included Captain Big Nose blasting a giant sneeze caused by his allergy to asteroids, with the punchline consisting of him shooting messy goo on the face of a young woman. “The joke in that sketch is effectively a cum shot joke. It’s a cum shot joke for children,” culture writer Schaachi Koul says in the premiere episode of the five-part series. “Looking back, it’s very strange. Frankly, it was just uncomfortable,” says Frierson, who also describes that getting close to “kingmaker” Schneider could result in another level of success for the young actors. “It was important to be on his good side, and he made it known who was on his good side,” he says.
Nickelodeon, which was not named in the suit, said in a statement in the series that it could not “corroborate or negate” the allegations from two decades ago, but that it investigates all formal complaints and has strict protocols for shows starring minors.
Schneider, 58, was not interviewed for the series, but issued a YouTube video apology after the show aired in which he said he was sorry for “past behaviors, some of which are embarrassing and that I regret.” The suit is seeking financial damages to be determined at trial for what it described as “the destruction of Schneider’s reputation and legacy” via “false statements and implications” as well as the editing and removals of portions of the series and trailers.
“Schneider will be the first to admit that some of what they said is true,” the lawsuit claims according to The Huffington Post. “At times, he was blind to the pain that some of his behaviors caused certain colleagues, subordinates, and cast members. He will regret and atone for this behavior the rest of his life. But one thing he is not — and the one thing that will forever mar his reputation and career both past and present — is a child sexual abuser.”
In a statement to HuffPo, Schneider said the series “highlighted mistakes I made and poor judgment I exhibited during my time at Nickelodeon. … There is no doubt that I was sometimes a bad leader. I am sincerely apologetic and regretful for that behavior, and I will continue to take accountability for it.”
Stories about sexual assault allegations can be traumatizing for survivors of sexual assault. If you or anyone you know needs support, you can reach out to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). The organization provides free, confidential support to sexual assault victims. Call RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline (800.656.HOPE) or visit the anti-sexual violence organization’s website for more information.
K-pop giant HYBE posted its lowest total revenue in two years as its recorded music segment sank to its lowest level in seven quarters, the South Korean company announced Thursday (May 2).
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HYBE had first quarter revenue of 360.9 billion won ($271.5 million), down 12.1% year over year and the lowest since posting 285 billion won ($214.4 million) in the first quarter of 2022. Operating profit fell precipitously to 14.4 billion won ($10.8 million), down 72.6% from the prior-year period.
HYBE’s share price was barely affected by the slowest quarter in years. The share price initially rose 1.7% to 205,500 won ($149.23) but my midday had fallen to 201,500 ($146.33), down 0.2%. The stock is down 13.7% year to date, however, and fell 12.6% last week following news that HYBE will report the CEO of its ADOR imprint, Min Hee-jin, to the police for “breach of trust and other related allegations.”
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Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), a measure of profitability that strips out non-cash items, was 39.8 billion won ($29.9 million), down 45% year over year and the lowest since the first quarter of 2021.
Concerts revenue of 44 billion won ($33.1 million) was up 74.5% year over year. Although that was the biggest year-over-year increase of any category, the first quarter of 2023 was abnormally slow. HYBE’s latest quarter was on par with 45.3 billion won ($34.1 million) of concert revenue in the fourth quarter of 2021, the first quarter the company had performances after COVID-19 restrictions shut down the touring industry.
Recorded music, the company’s largest segment at 40.2% of total revenue, fell 21.3% to 145.1 billion won ($109.2 million). HYBE successfully debuted two new groups during the quarter. Sparkling Blue, the debut EP by PLEDIS Entertainment boy band TWS, sold 260,000 units in its first week for and accumulated 500,000 units in the first nine weeks of release. Girl group ILLIT’s EP, Super Real Me, released through BELIFT LAB, sold 380,000 units in its debut week and reached the 500,000-unit mark in just four weeks. The single “Magnetic” debuted at No. 91 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in April.
Merchandising and licensing fell 11.9% to 60.7 billion won ($45.7 million). Contents fared worse, dropping 29.8% to 61.1 billion won ($46 million).
Weverse, HYBE’s social media platform, saw its monthly active users (MAUs) decline for the second quarter. After reaching a peak of 10.6 million MAUs in the third quarter of 2023, MAUs fell to 10.1 million in the fourth quarter and 9.2 million in the first quarter. Both average revenue per paying user and payment amount fell below levels reached in 2022 and 2023; HYBE does not provide specific numbers for either metric.
This week, Taylor Swift made history in more ways than one with the release of her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department. But perhaps the most mind-boggling of all the records she set was the first-week vinyl sales for the album, which came in at 859,000 — by far the largest sales week for a vinyl album in the modern era, blowing past the second-largest week by more than 160,000 units.
That second-largest week, by the way? The debut frame of her last release, 1989 (Taylor’s Version), which sold 693,000 vinyl copies in the week ending Nov. 2, 2023. In fact, Swift has the top four biggest vinyl sales weeks in history — all of which have come in the past 18 months — and six of the top eight, reflecting not just the industry-wide popularity boom for the format, but her own evolving strategy and emphasis on physical media and fan-focused collectibles.
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For Tortured Poets, Swift released six different vinyl variations (in addition to nine CD versions and four cassette versions), four of which were available widely and two of which were exclusives, one signed iteration through her own web store and one through Target. Of the four widely available, each included a different bonus track, and each have individually sold enough copies to top the vinyl sales charts for the week: the Manuscript edition (342,000); the Bolter edition (85,000); the Black Dog edition (79,000); and the Albatross edition (62,000).
That’s a continuation of the strategy she’s deployed in force since her, for lack of a better phrase, pandemic albums, Folklore and Evermore. And it’s a shining success story for how artists have been capitalizing on the resurrection of vinyl as not just physical art piece but also merch item, as the format has continued to surge for 18 years in a row, having hit 43.2 million U.S. sales in 2023, amounting to $1.35 billion in revenue, according to the RIAA.
Swift’s own career, in terms of album output, has grown along with that trend. Her self-titled debut album was released 18 years ago, in October 2006, a year when vinyl revenue sales in the U.S. were a mere $23.7 million. At that point, vinyl was such a niche market (and Swift was such a new artist) that for Taylor Swift and her second album, Fearless, Swift didn’t even release vinyl editions until May 2016, when they sold 500 copies and 1,000 copies, respectively, in their first week of availability. By the time of 2010’s Speak Now, Swift’s star power was much more formidable, but vinyl was still pretty niche; all vinyl sales in the U.S. that year accumulated $124.2 million, according to the RIAA, and Speak Now moved 500 copies in its first week.
Red, in 2012, was a true breakthrough moment for Swift in terms of her pop career, and the vinyl business had itself added nearly $100 million in value in just two years, to $213.3 million; Red sold 1,000 copies in the first week it came out in the format. Two years later, when she released 1989, the vinyl industry had added another $100 million per year, and the standard vinyl moved 11,000 copies in its first week of availability. For 2017’s Reputation, a slightly delayed street date release led to a 9,000 sale week in what was technically its second week of availability, with Swift still sticking to the standard vinyl option.
It was for Lover that Swift’s strategy first began to change, as she began experimenting with vinyl offerings beyond the standard black record, and the numbers began to really jump. When the album came out on the format in November 2019, it was as a colored double-vinyl, sold exclusively at Target, which helped boost that first-week number to 18,000 copies — at the time, the largest vinyl sales week by a woman since Adele’s 25 during Christmas week 2015 (reflected on the Jan. 9, 2016, chart). By 2019, vinyl sales in the U.S. had reach the half-billion-dollar mark — and the real jump for the format was on the horizon.
The figures for Folklore — 9,000 copies week one — at first may seem like a regression. But the pandemic brought about two competing trends: both an aggressive jump in the popularity of vinyl, and vast, industry-wide supply-chain issues related to the production of it. Since Folklore was a surprise release on July 24, 2020, the vinyl was delayed until November; but Swift sold digital-physical bundles when the album was first released, meaning that the digital sale was counted during the July release week, but when the vinyl finally shipped in November — the first-week availability tracked here — the sales were not counted as vinyl, as they had already been counted as digital. (The chart rules have since changed so they are no longer counted together.) So while Folklore’s first week as a wide release had 615,000 album sales, there’s no clear way of delineating how many of those sales included vinyl copies; and the first-week figure in November, of 9,000 copies, represents the number purchased during that week, when many of Swift’s die-hard fans were receiving the album, though it was not tracked that way.
Nonetheless, Folklore was the first Swift album to really lean in to the vinyl-as-collectible trend, with seven alternate covers in addition to the standard black pressing available. Evermore would follow suit, with another pandemic-related delay helping its first week: The album was released in December 2020, but the vinyl came out in May 2021, allowing for five months of banked pre-orders, and with a collectible tweak: It was available in two green-colored variants and a red-colored Target exclusive, resulting in a then-record 102,000 vinyl sales in its first week of availability.
What followed was the furious slate of re-releases of her older albums, as well as her own new releases, many of which followed similar strategies — and led to truly eye-popping, record-breaking numbers. Fearless (Taylor’s Version), also with a delayed physical release, came with two vinyl versions, a gold variant and a red Target exclusive, leading to a 67,000-copy first week; Red (Taylor’s Version) followed shortly after with two versions, both of which were four-LP sets that sold for $49.99 and led to a 114,000-sale first week, re-setting her own record.
By the time Midnights rolled around a year later, Swift’s playbook was complete: multiple covers, multiple colored vinyl variants and multiple vinyl editions of each album. Midnights had four variant editions sold widely, as well as another as a Target exclusive, while each of the wide releases were also available as signed copies. The result: 575,000 LPs sold in a week. Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), the following July, had three colored variants, one of which was a Target exclusive; 268,000 vinyl sales later, it also entered the pantheon. And 1989 (Taylor’s Version) completed the pre-Tortured Poets set: five color variants, one a Target exclusive with an extra bonus track, and 693,000 LPs sold in its first week.
Since the pandemic year of 2020, vinyl sales in the U.S. ballooned from $820 million to the 2023 peak of $1.35 billion in revenue. And while that’s an industry-wide trend, Swift’s strategies, and successes, have surely had plenty to do with it, too.
Live event production and rehearsal studio Rock Lititz and development firm Al. Neyer have teamed to open a 55-acre Nashville entertainment rehearsal and production campus, Rock Nashville, in 2025.
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The deal will include 44 acres of development over a 55-acre site in Nashville’s Whites Creek neighborhood. The Rock Nashville campus will include three buildings with more than 515,000 square feet of sound stages as well as creative offices and production facilities in various sizes with the capacity to support various production specifications for live shows, from local bands to A-list artists. The campus will include resources for performers and 13 band and production studio rehearsal spaces ranging from club/theater sizes to amphitheater, arena and stadium-scale (including one space up to 95 feet tall to replicate venues of that size), as well as set storage, backline rental, artist relation offices and a community cafe.
The campus is expected to become home to nearly 35 companies, including rehearsal studio complex SoundCheck, which had a hand in designing Rock Nashville and helped spearhead the strategic partnership between the team at Rock Lititz and Al. Neyer. SoundCheck will move from its current home on Cowan Street in Nashville, where it has been located for over three decades. Additionally, Clair Global, which provides live production spaces, systems integration and audio solutions, will be located at the new campus.
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Groundbreaking for the new facility occurred in mid-April, and construction is expected to be completed in Fall of 2025. Rock Nashville is expected to be home to 400 employees, and 85 employees at support businesses.
“As a full-service developer, we’re thrilled to be involved in the design, construction, and development of the future of Music City and live entertainment. As we continue to invest in the growing market of Nashville, this is our first foray into the entertainment world. We couldn’t imagine a more perfect operating partner to bring a new offering to the Nashville market alongside,” said Patrick Poole, Nashville Market Leader for Al. Neyer, in a statement.
“As we approach ten years since Rock Lititz opened its doors, we’ve been eager to find the next space and partner for expanding our support for the live entertainment industry. This unique and hard-working community thrives with access to specialized training, mentoring, and resources to help create custom live experiences for audiences worldwide. It is with great excitement that we’ve identified Nashville and Al. Neyer as the right city and partner. We are passionate about growing this network, and Nashville is the perfect location to join with other industry leaders to create something special,” added Andrea Shirk, Rock Lititz President and CEO, in a statement.
“SoundCheck has been part of the Nashville entertainment community for over 30 years, and we couldn’t be more excited to make Rock Nashville our new home,” said Soundcheck GM Kindal Jumper. “As Music City continues to grow as a premier destination for all genres of music, the campus’s state-of-the-art facilities will allow Soundcheck to meet the growing needs of today’s acts, ensuring the highest caliber production experience for artists and crews from Broadway to Bridgestone.
Rock Lititz was founded in 2000 by Troy Clair, owner of Clair Global, and Adam Davis, CEO of the TAIT Group. The Rock Lititz campus in Pennsylvania opened in 2014 and is home to more than 40 companies that support the live entertainment space.
SAG-AFTRA members have voted to ratify the 2024 Sound Recordings Code which requires the record labels — Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Disney Music Group — to abide by its AI safety rules. Notably, these are the first-ever explicitly defined compensation requirements for the release of sound recordings containing AI voices.
With a vote of 97.69% to 2.31%, SAG-AFTRA members, which include actors as well as singers and recording artists, now will receive this protections, effective immediately, for the term of 2021-2026. Now, the term “artist,” “singer” and “royalty artist” under this agreement only can refer to human talent. “Clear and conspicuous” consent is required prior to the release of a sound recording that uses a digital replication of an artist’s voice.
Artists who are replicated are also entitled to receive specific details about the replica’s intended use and to minimum compensation. Compensation for artists must align with the royalty share the artist would earn on other sound recordings under their contract, and sessions singers must receive a minimum of three sides per project. A minimum of 28 hours notice of any recording session for the purpose of creating a digital replica is expected and that session time should be paid as work time.
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Additionally, blanket consent for digital or AI replication is prohibited. Instead, record labels must obtain consent on a per-project basis — a provision which will prevent labels from asking artists to sign away their digital likeness for lengthy terms as part of their deals.
In the year since Ghostwriter’s fake-Drake song “Heart On My Sleeve” brought conversations about AI voices to the forefront, little has been done to actually enforce the protection of artists’ identities. While the federal government is considering a few bills (like the draft NO FAKES Act and the NO AI FRAUD Act) to create a nationwide right of publicity that would create uniform protection for artists’ names, images, and voices, these protections, for now, remain a patchwork of varying state laws that were largely written before artificial intelligence presented new use cases for AI.
“Singers and recording artists have a profound impact on our culture, and I’m thrilled that they’ve achieved a contract that not only recognizes their value with significant wage increases, but also provides them essential protections around artificial intelligence,” said SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher. “We celebrate our human performers! I applaud the negotiating committee and staff, the record labels, and SAG-AFTRA members for getting this contract across the finish line!”
SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director & Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said, “This contract secures groundbreaking A.I. guardrails while also achieving crucial and substantial wage increases, and other key wins for singers and recording artists. Protecting human artistry will always be SAG-AFTRA’s priority, and I’m heartened that our members have a contract that provides immediate gains and recognizes the importance of human contributions to the industry. I also want to acknowledge Negotiating Committee Chair Dan Navarro and the entire committee and staff for their outstanding and dedicated work in achieving this agreement.”
Sound Recordings Code Negotiating Committee Chair Dan Navarro said, “Members’ feedback played a key role in the formation of this contract and the negotiating committee prioritized the concerns that were most crucial to the singers and recording artists impacted by these terms. We’re proud to have achieved these essential wins in A.I. protections along with substantial wage increases and gains in health and retirement funding.”
Other wins included wage increases and gains in health and retirement funding. To read the full list of provisions, see here.
Ticketing for live events is not only under the Justice Department’s microscope but front and center for music fans across the country. This focus places our industry at a crossroads. We can either stay with the status quo, in which events are egregiously expensive and funds go to resellers rather than artists and venues, or we can use this moment to support reform that benefits the broader live event ecosystem.
For too long, fans, artists, and venues have been caught in an unchecked marketplace riddled with speculative ticketing, deceptive practices and exorbitant price gouging.
But all is not lost. We have an opportunity to establish guardrails that protect fans, create trust and promote a healthy live event industry.
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The Fans First Act is the right bill, at the right time. If passed, this important bipartisan legislation will bring much-needed enforcement and transparency, prohibit deceptive websites, disclose resellers, and ban speculative ticketing. That is why we call on Congress to pass this important legislation and move it to the White House for signature.
The Problem
To understand why we need the Fans First Act requires a full understanding of the problem and how we got here.
Fans find themselves in a perfect storm. Amid inflation and an unpredictable economy, they face bots, brokers and skyrocketing prices for live experiences (concert ticket prices have increased by 35% since 2019), according to Pollstar. While fans are eager to see their favorite acts and artists live, too many cannot.
Music festivals are a prime example of live events looking to adapt to the current economic environment of increased costs for fans (tickets, travel/lodging and food) and rising production fees. Unfortunately for fans, this means canceled events. This year, manyfestivals have been canceled as organizers look to consolidate and adjust to rising fees and economic constraints.
Dig deeper into the fan experience and we find that many fans’ first engagement with live entertainment is through a reseller on a secondary ticketing site, sometimes posing as the actual venue.
Fans are often asked to cough up well over $500 for a decent ticket on the secondary market, and that’s for real tickets. A buyer has no sense of clarity about the primary ticket seller. For example, Seattle fan Kerry Dellisanti had her own dream crushed when her $895 nosebleed ticket for a Taylor Swift concert turned out to be speculative (fake). Her friends ended up enjoying the show without her.
Fans across genres and localities are frequently deceived by fake tickets. Many book non-refundable travel and hotels for concerts they think they have a real ticket for, but they’ve been scammed.
Everyone is losing in this environment.
Unscrupulous brokers and illegal bots have been increasingly detrimental to consumers. As they resell tickets at the highest possible price, it’s having a direct impact on the full ecosystem of live events, harming fans, artists and venues alike.
Sky-high profit margins for the secondary ticket seller means fans are seeing fewer shows and spending less on venue concessions and merchandise that sustain organizers and artists. When fans show up at a venue with a fake or overpriced ticket, the predatory seller who defrauded them is nowhere to be found. It is the venue owners, artists and small businesses who are left to pick up the pieces of this unchecked ticketing ecosystem.
The Solution
Our industry is at a crossroads. Cater to the resellers and brokers who have no investment in the concerts? Or swing the power of the live performance industry back into the hands of fans, artists and venues?
We call on Congress to pass the Fans First Act. Fans, artists and venues are the lifeblood of the live entertainment industry and their experience should always be at the forefront. The time is now to give the industry back to the people who make it tick and get back to what makes live events and music so important — and what fuels local economies across the country.
The connection. The experience.
Julia Hartz is co-founder, CEO and executive board chair of Eventbrite.
Stephen Parker is executive director of the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA).
Crook & Chase, Diane Rehm, Larry Elder and Richard Blade are among the well-known radio professionals who are nominated for the Radio Hall of Fame. Howard Stern, who has long had a love/hate relationship with the institution, is not among the 24 nominees announced today by The Museum of Broadcast Communications. The nominees were chosen […]
As a former executive at music companies in Singapore, Hong Kong, New York and Los Angeles, Wendy Ong certainly has the globe-trotting credentials to help a roster of music artists including Lana Del Rey, Ellie Goulding and Noah Cyrus navigate an increasingly global business. But Ong charted the flight path she took to her current role as global co-president/chief marketing officer of the artist management and publishing company TaP Music largely on her own because, she says, mentors for an Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) music executive were virtually nonexistent then.
As a result, Ong — who was raised in Malaysia and Singapore and worked at BMG, Arista, RCA, the Metropolitan Opera, EMI, Capitol, Interscope and Roc Nation — says she makes it a priority to be one herself, particularly for Asians and Asian Americans. Her mentorship has been aided by her participation in Gold House — a community of Asian Pacific entrepreneurs, creatives and other leaders — after, she says, she was invited to one of the organization’s dinners “by accident.” She adds that when opportunity presents itself, “it depends on what you do with it.”
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Ong sat down with Billboard to discuss the continued importance of music festivals, the work of Gold House and the promise of artificial intelligence (AI), among other topics.
Lana Del Rey returned to Coachella this year as a headliner. Do festival bookings still move the needle?
When you’re strategic about it, it allows you to make getting into smaller markets cost-effective. It’s hard to do proper global touring these days, and even in the U.S., festivals allow an artist to complement their overall touring strategy. From the TaP perspective, it’s still a very key component, especially for developing artists. It’s the same reason that collaborations work because it’s crossing over to other artists’ audiences. And not just for young people. I’m supposed to be the jaded music executive, but I’m not. The Justice set [at Coachella] blew me away. I actually went and checked immediately [to see if they’re touring] because I wanted to see it again.
Prior to Coachella, what other major wins has TaP scored in the past 12 months?
Ellie [Goulding] is one of the most multifaceted artists anywhere. She had a No. 1 single and album last year [with “Miracle” featuring Calvin Harris and fifth full-length Higher Than Heaven] in the same week in the U.K. That was stunning. And Caroline Polachek’s album [Desire, I Want To Turn Into You, which debuted at No. 9 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart]. I love that Caroline and Mookie Singerman, who manages her, have been together since the beginning of [Polachek’s former band] Chairlift. There’s something to be said for loyalty. Sometimes when an artist gets bigger, they feel they need to switch up their teams. They are the CEO of their own company, so they need to make tough calls sometimes. But it’s nice to see those that remain loyal.
After Ong spearheaded a Fifty Shades of Grey classical compilation at EMI, she says author E L James’ lawyer sent her a cease-and-desist notice. “I flew to London,” she says, and successfully proposed releasing Fifty Shades of Grey: The Classical Album, which put her on the radar of radio departments at Capitol when programmers called to say, “ ‘We heard you released a BDSM classical album.’ ”
Yasara Gunawardena
How are label layoffs affecting management?
Significantly. I always look to partner with our major labels in the best possible way, and when things are up in the air, it makes it very challenging to understand how much support we’re going to have. The company that [TaP co-CEOs] Ben [Mawson] and Ed [Millett] have built is very much on the ethos of self-sufficiency. Going back to Lana, at the beginning of her career, they had a lot of pushback. She signed to Universal Germany because nobody believed in her. And that was and still is today a big takeaway for how we function as a company. We try to do as much for our artists as we can without overly relying on third parties, whether it’s a label, a brand, a social [platform] or a [digital service provider]. We need that agency to be able to make a difference.
What does that entail today?
All anybody wants to talk about right now is superfans. And it’s such a wake-up call. Fans want that close, direct relationship with the artist, and we were all slow in realizing that we need to take control of this relationship. We, as a management company, have made big strides in CRM [customer relationship management]. We have someone employed specifically at our company to do CRM. We’re platform agnostic, whether that’s OpenStage or Community or Laylo. What is important for us is to be able to take back the data. I say “data,” but that’s the fans. Artists need to be able to talk to their fans directly, and I think we’re leading the charge on the management side. It’s a testament to how [much] we value our artists’ fans.
Ong’s great-grandmother, with whom she lived in Malaysia while attending preschool, gave her this pendant.
Yasara Gunawardena
You’ve talked about not having a mentor in the industry. When you switched to management, was it even more apparent?
It was glaring. I wish that wasn’t my answer, by the way. I wish I could say that, “Oh, yeah. So-and-so really lifted me up and helped me out so much.” Younger people, whether it’s on social media or in real life, often reach out to me, and I do my best to play whatever small part I can because I think that my path may have been a little less rocky if I had more guidance early in my career. And the very reason I had no mentors is because there weren’t enough people that looked like me when I was coming up in the industry. Now there’s K-pop, so that has changed things in the best possible way.
How does Gold House encourage more mentorship and visibility of the AAPI community in music?
With Gold House, I think it’s the first time that I became a part of something greater for the AAPI community. It makes it easier to give back and to spotlight minority communities like ours. I’m also very proud to be part of the Gold House Music Accelerator program. The spotlight K-pop has put on the AAPI community is wonderful, but being a judge on the Gold House Music Accelerator program helps to shine a light on other types of artists, whether it’s indie-rock or R&B.
Why has K-pop become an umbrella term in the United States for all Asian music right now?
Because we’re dealing with the greater media that is not Asian, it eclipses all these other interesting artists and music that’s coming out from countries like Indonesia and the Philippines and Taiwan. Nowhere else in the world would you put South Asians, Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, Filipinos, Indonesians all under one umbrella. It makes no sense outside of America. We have to do it in this country because we’re all minorities and we can have a bigger voice if we band together. It’s a challenge, though, because K-pop has changed so much of what we think pop music looks like. So now that we have a sliver of an opening, I hope that we get to demonstrate through Gold House efforts, for example, other types of music made by Asians.
A sweatshirt embroidered with the face of Ong’s recently deceased dog, Patches, whom she rescued 16 years ago on the island of Tobago and “was my rock through and through.”
Yasara Gunawardena
What genre would you like to see gain prominence?
I’m so excited about South Asian Desi music. It is so much fun and joy and rhythm and bass. That joyousness is similar to how I view a lot of Latin music. It’s inevitable that a Desi artist is going to break through, and I’m excited for that to find its way into America.
TaP has its publishing, philanthropic, fashion and sports divisions, but is there another sector you would love to see the company tackle in the future?
I am very excited and a huge advocate for all the positive changes that AI can bring. But I also have that personality of an early adopter. I think that in two years’ time the music industry is going to look extremely different — maybe more so on the publishing side because that’s where it’s the most scary. When things are challenging, that is when opportunity comes. It’s whether we can find a way to leverage it.
Outside of new music, what are you looking forward to this year?
The Gold Music Alliance. It was really encouraging when [the organization] had the chance to do the event around the Grammys this year. It was the first experience for me as a member of the Recording Academy to realize that there was interest in growing the AAPI membership base. Because I don’t think we’re very represented.
Yasara Gunawardena
Do you think that will change with this year’s nominations?
In 2023, two AAPI trustees were elected to the academy’s national board of trustees. I think that is a sign that we are getting more representation. And I want to use my platform to encourage more AAPIs to become members of the Recording Academy. I know K-pop dominates in terms of consumption, but recognition is what I’m speaking about. I would be really excited to see a non-fan-voted award with K-pop. We should be represented not just in Billboard sales charts, but also in critical acclaim. Once again, I hope that K-pop forges the path for other types of Asian music.
The academy added a best African music performance category this year. Would you like to see a similar addition for K-pop?
How amazing would that be, but it’s a double-edged sword. Like, why isn’t K-pop just part of pop? It’s [like asking] why is there a best actor and a best actress at the Oscars? Sometimes I think it’s necessary because we can’t [bestow] the right amount of acclaim and recognition by putting everyone in the same bucket. We’ll see more changes due to AI than we’ll see anything else. I wish technological advances could help advance this type of conversation — maybe that’s the challenge.
This article originally appeared in the April 27, 2024 issue of Billboard.
Concord Label Group has promoted Joe Dent to executive vp of operations and Jill Weindorf to executive vp of marketing, the company announced Tuesday (April 30). Weindorf is based in Los Angeles while Dent is located in Concord’s Nashville headquarters.
The promotions, some of the first under newly-appointed Concord Label Group CEO Tom Becci, aim to modernize Concord’s structure to support an expanding roster of talent while increasing the company’s ability to sign, develop and support artists within the global ecosystem.
Weindorf began her career in marketing at Elektra Records and has spent 17 years at Concord. In her new role, she will lead marketing efforts across Concord’s eight active labels and, in conjunction with Concord’s label presidents, continue to develop career artists globally.
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Dent previously spent a decade at Fat Beats Distribution, where he rose to GM. Since joining Concord, he has led the charge to stabilize the company’s vinyl pipeline during the COVID-19 pandemic, increased its in-house spatial audio capacity and developed a business-to-business (B2B) system for interacting with artists. In his new capacity, Dent will continue to concentrate on improving processes across the active label and back-office teams. He will also build further internal system efficiency and interconnection while working with external partners on capacity, supply chain and process efficiencies.
“Music is about connection and Jill’s ability to devise a marketing strategy in concert with an artist, while considering their priorities, who they are, the place they want to be, and then work tirelessly in support of that plan is unparalleled,” said Becci in a statement. “Having Jill in this role will certainly allow Concord to remain competitive in an increasingly complicated and global market. Joe has an incredible understanding of how to look at a classically messy system, identify areas for improvement, and make real and lasting corrections. I have no doubt that Joe will continue guiding Concord towards further operational efficiencies in support of our artists.”
“My focus has always been the artists and music,” Weindorf said in a statement. “Concord has offered me the opportunity to build long-term trust with so many career artists and I love being part of the journey with them. I’m also excited by our legacy recordings and the depth and historical relevance of our catalog. Many executives don’t get the chance to work across such a wide breadth of repertoire; I have been here for 17 years, and I am still excited by that opportunity every day.”
“What I genuinely appreciate about Concord is that, despite our size, we are still incredibly nimble,” added Dent. “If we believe there is a superior way that we can do things, there is a reasonable chance that we will do it that way. I’m incredibly grateful for the trust that so many amazing artists put in us and I’m excited to continue finding ways we can better support them. This really is a dream come true for a punk from New Jersey.”
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee convened on Tuesday (April 30) to discuss a proposed bill that would effectively create a federal publicity right for artists in a hearing that featured testimony from Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl, artist FKA Twigs, Digital Media Association (DiMA) CEO Graham Davies, SAG-AFTRA national executive director/chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, Motion Picture Association senior vp/associate general counsel Ben Sheffner and the University of San Diego professor Lisa P. Ramsey.
The draft bill — called the Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe Act (NO FAKES Act) — would create a federal right for artists, actors and others to sue those who create “digital replicas” of their image, voice, or visual likeness without permission. Those individuals have previously only been protected through a patchwork of state “right of publicity” laws. First introduced in October, the NO FAKES Act is supported by a bipartisan group of U.S. senators including Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.).
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Warner Music Group (WMG) supports the NO FAKES Act along with many other music businesses, the RIAA and the Human Artistry Campaign. During Kyncl’s testimony, the executive noted that “we are in a unique moment of time where we can still act and we can get it right before it gets out of hand,” pointing to how the government was not able to properly handle data privacy in the past. He added that it’s imperative to get out ahead of artificial intelligence (AI) to protect artists’ and entertainment companies’ livelihoods.
“When you have these deepfakes out there [on streaming platforms],” said Kyncl, “the artists are actually competing with themselves for revenue on streaming platforms because there’s a fixed amount of revenue within each of the streaming platforms. If somebody is uploading fake songs of FKA Twigs, for example, and those songs are eating into that revenue pool, then there is less left for her authentic songs. That’s the economic impact of it long term, and the volume of content that will then flow into the digital service providers will increase exponentially, [making it] harder for artists to be heard, and to actually reach lots of fans. Creativity over time will be stifled.”
Kyncl, who recently celebrated his first anniversary at the helm of WMG, previously held the role of chief business officer at YouTube. When questioned about whether platforms, like YouTube, Spotify and others who are represented by DiMA should be held responsible for unauthorized AI fakes on their platforms, Kyncl had a measured take: “There has to be an opportunity for [the services] to cooperate and work together with all of us to [develop a protocol for removal],” he said.
During his testimony, Davies spoke from the perspective of the digital service providers (DSPs) DiMA represents. “There’s been no challenge [from platforms] in taking down the [deepfake] content expeditiously,” he said. “We don’t see our members needing any additional burdens or incentives here. But…if there is to be secondary liability, we would very much seek that to be a safe harbor for effective takedowns.”
Davies added, however, that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which provides a notice and takedown procedure for copyright infringement, is not a perfect model to follow for right of publicity offenses. “We don’t see [that] as being a good process as [it was] designed for copyright…our members absolutely can work with the committee in terms of what we would think would be an effective [procedure],” said Davies. He added, “It’s really essential that we get specific information on how to identify the offending content so that it can be removed efficiently.”
There is currently no perfect solution for tracking AI deepfakes on the internet, making a takedown procedure tricky to implement. Kyncl said he hopes for a system that builds on the success of YouTube’s Content ID, which tracks sound recordings. “I’m hopeful we can take [a Content ID-like system] further and apply that to AI voice and degrees of similarity by using watermarks to label content and care the provenance,” he said.
The NO FAKES draft bill as currently written would create a nationwide property right in one’s image, voice, or visual likeness, allowing an individual to sue anyone who produced a “newly-created, computer-generated, electronic representation” of it. It also includes publicity rights that would not expire at death and could be controlled by a person’s heirs for 70 years after their passing. Most state right of publicity laws were written far before the invention of AI and often limit or exclude the protection of an individual’s name, image and voice after death.
The proposed 70 years of post-mortem protection was one of the major points of disagreement between participants at the hearing. Kyncl agreed with the points made by Crabtree-Ireland of SAG-AFTRA — the actors’ union that recently came to a tentative agreement with major labels, including WMG, for “ethical” AI use — whose view was that the right should not be limited to 70 years post-mortem and should instead be “perpetual,” in his words.
“Every single one of us is unique, there is no one else like us, and there never will be,” said Crabtree-Ireland. “This is not the same thing as copyright. It’s not the same thing as ‘We’re going to use this to create more creativity on top of that later [after the copyright enters public domain].’ This is about a person’s legacy. This is about a person’s right to give this to their family.”
Kyncl added simply, “I agree with Mr. Crabtree-Ireland 100%.”
However, Sheffner shared a different perspective on post-mortem protection for publicity rights, saying that while “for living professional performers use of a digital replica without their consent impacts their ability to make a living…that job preservation justification goes away post-mortem. I have yet to hear of any compelling government interest in protecting digital replicas once somebody is deceased. I think there’s going to be serious First Amendment problems with it.”
Elsewhere during the hearing, Crabtree-Ireland expressed a need to limit how long a young artist can license out their publicity rights during their lifetime to ensure they are not exploited by entertainment companies. “If you had, say, a 21-year-old artist who’s granting a transfer of rights in their image, likeness or voice, there should not be a possibility of this for 50 years or 60 years during their life and not have any ability to renegotiate that transfer. I think there should be a shorter perhaps seven-year limitation on this.”